The platform stopped asking users for their consent to be tracked to receive targeted advertising after agreeing to pause the privacy policy update.
The Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC), TikTok's lead privacy regulator for the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation, said the "pause" follows "engagement" with the tech giant yesterday.
TikTok agreed to pause the application of the changes in order for the DPC to carry out its analysis, according to a DPC spokesman.
Someone has contacted TikTok.
The planned switch away from asking users for their consent to run personalized ads to claiming it could process the data under a legal ground known as "legitimate interest" was reprimanded by Italy's data protection watchdog.
Privacy experts questioned the appropriateness of TikTok using a legitimate interest ground.
TikTok was still defending its plan.
TikTok told us that it was evaluating the notice and that it was committed to respecting the privacy of its users.
For legitimate interest to be a valid legal basis for processing personal data under EU law, a data processor must conduct a series of tests to assess, first of all, whether it has a legitimate purpose for carrying out the processing, and, second, whether the processing is necessary for the purpose identified There is a third test where it must consider the rights and freedoms of the individuals whose information is involved.
The first two tests have some cautionary advice from the UK's data protection watchdog.
You should be careful not to confuse processing that is necessary for your stated purpose with processing which is only necessary because of your chosen method of pursuing that purpose. In the context of legitimate interests, you may be able to argue that some non-essential features of your processing (such as profiling or marketing) are necessary for your purposes. However, this is only the case if you clearly identify the specific purpose behind those particular features, and don’t hide behind a vague business objective that could be achieved in another way.
The adtech infrastructural and algorithms which feed on the high velocity trading of personal data to run auctions for behavioral advertising have been shown lacking adequate security to protect people's information.
The Dutch authority has taken an exceptional position that legitimate interests cannot be used for a commercial interest. The actual situation is more nuanced, but trying to stick an entire behavioral advertising business model on an LI footing definitely merits close attention from regulators.
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